A Name Shakes the Region; The Heart of Yesterday

Chapter 0723: A Name Shakes the Region; The Heart of Yesterday

The white-clothed woman saw Han Li enter. She returned the silver sword she had been stroking to its wooden case, then lifted her head delicately and gazed at him with quiet composure.

A face he had seen countless times in dreams appeared before him.

Her slightly pointed chin, her delicate nose, those clear intoxicating eyes. All of this was so familiar, so stirring. A warmth he could not describe welled up from within his heart.

It was as if he had already spent a hundred, a thousand years with this woman.

All thoughts of mental discipline, of cultivation formulas, were cast entirely aside. He let a passion he had never before experienced flood his chest in that instant.

Nangong Wan was taken aback by his unabashed stare. A flicker of thoughtful calculation passed through her beautiful eyes, and her brow creased slightly in an unconscious frown.

“Yu’er, you may leave. I wish to speak with this person alone.” Nangong Wan raised her chin slightly and spoke calmly to the yellow-robed female cultivator who had led Han Li in.

“Yes, Grand-Master!” The yellow-robed girl was startled for a moment, then immediately bowed in agreement.

She quietly withdrew from the hall and vanished from sight.

Han Li waited until the woman had completely disappeared from the doorway. Then he looked around, sweeping the area with his spiritual sense. There were indeed no other cultivators nearby.

Only then did he fix his gaze on Nangong Wan. Without another word, his hands formed a seal. A sudden series of crackling pops erupted from within his body. His stature abruptly grew several inches taller, and a ripple of azure light passed over his face.

Han Li revealed his true appearance.

“It really is you. Han Li.” A complex expression flickered across Nangong Wan’s jade-like face. But she did not seem overly surprised. She only let out a faint sigh.

“You… you knew I would come!” Han Li, having returned to his original appearance, did not know how to address her. He stammered, and rather clumsily uttered such an uninteresting line.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. He scratched the back of his head in annoyance.

“Oh, you. Just call me Wan’er.” Seeing Han Li looking so dazed and foolish, Nangong Wan’s expression softened, and she broke into a gentle smile.

Her bright eyes sparkled; her radiance was stunning.

“Wan’er!” Han Li’s heart surged with joy. He could not help but call out softly.

The unease that had been gnawing at him finally settled.

It was clear that she did have feelings for him. Otherwise, she would not have shown him such an expression.

For a moment, Han Li was mesmerized, staring intently at her peerless beauty.

“Is there something so fascinating about me? Am I really more pleasing to the eye than that newly taken concubine of yours?” Nangong Wan’s face flushed slightly. She tilted her head and spoke with a touch of coolness.

“Concubine? You know about that too.” The hint of displeasure in her voice finally snapped Han Li back to his senses somewhat. He spoke with surprise.

“Hmph! A new elder of the Falling Cloud Sect, a Nascent Soul cultivator who advanced in just over two hundred years. How could I not know?” Nangong Wan lowered her head slightly, looking at the polished stone floor, and gave a soft, defiant hum.

“Was it that cultivator surnamed Tang I met a few days ago?” Han Li thought for a moment, then spoke with a hint of realization.

“You’re not stupid. It was indeed that Junior Fellow Tang, who sent me a voice transmission talisman through a special channel. When I received it, I could hardly believe it. You, vanished for so many years, had actually become a Nascent Soul cultivator. I immediately had someone bring me the recent records of the Falling Cloud Sect. I usually pay little attention to such matters. Though late, I finally got a general picture of your situation. From your sudden appearance and becoming a Falling Cloud Sect elder, to your departure during the trade fair. I know a little about it all. And that concubine of yours, she hasn’t left Tian Tian City even now!” Nangong Wan brushed a stray lock of hair from her forehead, cast a sidelong glance at Han Li, and spoke with a faint, knowing smile. Her expression suddenly turned bewitchingly charming, radiating a thousand kinds of allure.

“I had clearly ordered her to return to the sect with another elder at the time. It seems something must have delayed her. As for that concubine…” Han Li rubbed his nose, a look of embarrassment on his face as he tried to explain.

“Alright, say no more. It’s not that I’m complaining about you taking a concubine. After all, am I not about to marry someone myself?” Nangong Wan cut him off. Her expression dimmed, and she suddenly seemed fragile.

“What is going on? Are you really planning to marry that man?” Han Li’s expression hardened. His voice deepened as he asked slowly.

“Before answering that, Wan’er would like to ask you a question. Why have you come? Is it to stop me from marrying him, or just to see me and then leave?” Nangong Wan bit her lower lip gently, her starry eyes shimmering.

“To take you away, of course. I want you to be my wife, Han Li’s wife! Whoever wants to take you from me will first have to answer to me.” Han Li answered without hesitation, his voice filled with unwavering resolve.

“You wish! When did I ever agree to marry you?” Hearing this, Nangong Wan’s face flushed deeply. She spat at him coquettishly, her demeanor intensely alluring.

Han Li chuckled, saying nothing more.

Even if he was a novice in matters of the heart, he knew that sometimes the best thing to do was to hold one’s tongue.

After a moment, the shyness faded from Nangong Wan’s face. Her expression turned serious.

“Do you know, back then in the forbidden zone of the Blood Forbidden Trial, after I lost my purity to you, my very first thought was to cut you, that mere Qi Condensation junior, into a thousand pieces, then grind your bones to dust with my Vermilion Bird Ring, to avenge the loss of my chastity! I had preserved my innocence for over a hundred years, only to have it destroyed by you. How could I not have hated you to the extreme?”

“So I was nearly killed back then,” Han Li said, rubbing his nose with a helpless, almost amused expression.

“Of course. If I hadn’t had a sudden change of heart and let you go, do you think you could have taken advantage of a Core Formation cultivator like me so easily?” Nangong Wan said, still with a trace of lingering blush on her face, but her tone was one of mock reproach.

Han Li grinned but said nothing.

Only after Nangong Wan had somewhat relieved herself of this lingering resentment did she continue, parting her cherry lips:

“Later, after we parted and I returned to my sect, no matter how I cultivated or meditated in seclusion, I could not shake your image from my mind. It grew clearer and more frequent. It was then I realized you had become my Inner Demon, my mental obstacle. If I could not find a way to dispel it, I feared my cultivation would never advance again.”

“There were only two ways to eliminate this obstacle. One was for me to marry you, becoming one with you as husband and wife, and the obstacle would naturally vanish. The second was for you to disappear from this world entirely. If you no longer existed, the Inner Demon would gradually fade. Marrying you was impossible at the time, given the vast disparity in our cultivation and status. So after being tormented for a long time, I resolved to eliminate you. But before I could act, the Six Demonic Sects invaded. I happened to see you again at the Seven Sect encampment. By then, you were already a Foundation Establishment cultivator. This new development shook my resolve. If you could continue to advance, it was not impossible for us to become husband and wife.”

“So you were contemplating killing me again back then. When I saw your masked figure that day, I was ecstatic. But your cold demeanor doused me like a bucket of cold water, and I was disheartened for some time.” A stunned look crossed Han Li’s face, but he immediately let out a wry murmur.

Nangong Wan smiled softly at this, but did not offer a reply, and instead continued:

“Afterwards, the Spirit Beast Sect betrayed us, and the Seven Sects suffered a great defeat. Each sect prepared to evacuate their core disciples from the Yue Kingdom. As the youngest Core Formation cultivator, I was originally among the first to be evacuated. But at the time, a good friend of mine from the Yellow Maple Valley, in their correspondence, hinted at Senior Linghu’s evacuation plan. I understood that you might be in grave danger.”

“At that moment, it was as if a demon had possessed me. I had only one thought in my heart: to return and save you. But by the time I arrived, it was already too late. The battle was over. Most of the disciples used as bait had been killed. Only a small fraction had managed to break out. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead. With no other choice, I returned to my sect to help the remaining disciples fight the demonic sect forces. I was severely wounded in a battle with a Core Formation cultivator. While breaking out, I was pursued by several juniors. You must know what happened after that. The person named Nangong Ping never existed. It was merely a disguise. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to reveal my true face to you. But how could I, a Core Formation cultivator, tell you outright that I had come specifically to save you, that I wanted to marry you? And at the time, I had absorbed most of your cultivation. I was even more embarrassed to show my true face. But didn’t I ask you to return to the Moon-Masking Sect with me? If you had come back with me, I would have revealed myself and done my utmost to help you form your core, and then married you. Who would have thought you were either truly greedy for money or simply too proud? You insisted on just taking a few spirit stones and calling it settled. That left me at a complete loss.” When she reached this point, a flicker of amusement passed through Nangong Wan’s bright eyes. She shot Han Li a fierce glare. But Han Li felt there was a hint of relief, even gratitude, in that glare.

He did not know that if he had agreed to return to the Moon-Masking Sect with her that day, Nangong Wan might have married him as promised. But it was even more likely that, disappointed by his willingness to dual cultivate with any woman so casually, she would have simply used that as an excuse to dissolve her Inner Demon. In that case, her feelings for him would have cooled, and she would have probably just found a female disciple to satisfy the promise.